Group urges govt to reconvene Parliament now instead of after Emergency ends

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — Parliament should sit now and not in September after the nationwide Emergency is lifted, a group of civil societies and think tanks calling themselves the Seed Community for a Professional Parliament said today.

The group consists of Bait Al-Amanah, Bersih 2.0, Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, Engage, Institute for Political Reform and Democracy, Persatuan Pengundi Muda, and Pusat Komas.

According to the group, delaying parliamentary proceedings till after August 1 puts Yang di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA) in a difficult position of potentially going against Article 55 (1) of the Federal Constitution.

“Article 55 (1) imposes a constitutional obligation directly on the Constitutional Monarch not to allow six months to elapse between Parliament’s last sitting in one session and the date appointed for its first meeting in the next session,” they said in a statement.

They pointed out that the King can only act once the prime minister takes the initial step of fixing a date for the sitting.

“While the State of Emergency was declared under the YDPA’s powers under Article 150 of the Constitution, nevertheless, the tenure of the Emergency Proclamation would mean that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s administration was placing the YDPA in the difficult position of being unable to fulfil the constitutional obligation under Article 55(1),” they added.

The Seed Community for a Professional Parliament said the prime minister and the attorney general have a duty to advise the King to end the suspension of Parliament as soon as it was clear that Emergency law is absolutely unnecessary to manage the Covid-19 pandemic.

They claim that recent events proved that Emergency measures have not stopped the disease from spreading and cited the statement issued by the Conference of Rulers yesterday to substantiate their argument.

“Also as Their Royal Highnesses noted, Parliament and the legislative assemblies can and should convene during the pandemic precisely because these institutions are integral in monitoring the implementation of Covid-19 policies, programmes and expenditures and in debating alternatives for improvement.

“It is therefore incumbent on Tan Sri Muhyiddin and the AG to now immediately advise the YDPA to revoke the State of Emergency, or to revise the Emergency Ordinance (or invoke Sections 14(1)(b) and 15(1)(b)) to lift the suspension of Parliament and the State legislative assemblies,” they said.

The group also urged all mentris besar and chief ministers to seek advice on reconvening their respective state legislative assemblies, noting that the Rulers have indicated they are in favour of such.

They also urged Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to immediately prioritise vaccination for Parliament personnel and those in the state assemblies, as well as any other elected representative yet to be inoculated.

“Delay in this aspect may be construed as a deliberate move to delay the opening of Parliament and the State Assemblies.

Yesterday, Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal Tan Sri Syed Danial Syed Ahmad said in a statement that the Agong and the Conference of Rulers indicated that there is no need for the ongoing Emergency to be extended past its original end date of August 1.

In a separate statement the same day, the Controller of Royal Household Datuk Indera Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin said the Rulers also decided that Parliament should reconvene soon and the government should be stable to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on people’s life and economy.